Biggs Museum spotlights the art and influence of Elizabeth Catlett

The Biggs Museum of American Art is presenting "The Art of Elizabeth Catlett from the Collection of Samella Lewis," on view through June 21, 2026. The exhibition features Catlett's prints and sculptures, drawn from the collection of her former student and lifelong friend Samella Lewis, and also includes works by Lewis and Catlett's husband, Francisco Mora. Catlett, who studied with Grant Wood and worked with the Taller de Gráfica Popular in Mexico City, focused her art on the lives of Black women, addressing themes of identity, equity, labor, family, and freedom.

Contemporary Gallery Debut Events

Hearts Gallery made its debut on May 2, 2026, in Los Angeles with an exclusive group exhibition at Modern Multiples, a historic print studio in Chinatown. The opening attracted artists, collectors, celebrities, and style leaders from fashion, film, and contemporary art, featuring works by Richard Duardo, Erika Galvez, Julian Prolman, Shepard Fairey, Ed Ruscha, Chaz Bojorquez, Estevan Oriol, and others, while celebrating Modern Multiples' legacy with icons like Diana Ross, Madonna, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, and RuPaul.

At Maya Gallery, a Benefit Sale Becomes a Map of Israeli Contemporary Art

Maya Gallery in New York is hosting a benefit sale that features works by over 50 Israeli contemporary artists, including prominent names like Michal Rovner and Sigalit Landau. The sale aims to raise funds for the gallery's programming and to support Israeli artists amid ongoing geopolitical tensions.

WORDS WORDS WORDS at Everard Read shows the power of words in contemporary art

The article reviews 'WORDS, WORDS, WORDS,' an exhibition at Everard Read Gallery's CIRCA space in South Africa, which explores the role of language in contemporary visual art. Curated with a focus on how words are bent, repeated, fragmented, and reassembled, the show features works by South African artists including Willem Boshoff and Luca Evans, who engage with conceptual art traditions from Dada to Barbara Kruger. Boshoff's braille-inset wooden piece 'Planet of Echinus' questions inclusion and exclusion in language, while Evans' work riffs on Joseph Kosuth's iconic text pieces using ancient wood-inlay techniques.

Chrome, Canvas, Cultura: Art On Main’s Chicano Exhibition Redefines East Dallas Experience

Art on Main in East Dallas is hosting "Chicano," a massive group exhibition featuring 79 works by 58 artists from the Dallas-Fort Worth area and beyond. Curated by Junanne Peck and Ariel Esquivel, the show spans painting, photography, metal sculpture, and printmaking to explore themes of identity, resilience, and the lived experiences of the Mexican-American community. Highlights include Rodrigo Paredes’ tribute to street vendors and Lisa Batchelder’s surrealist explorations of her Oak Cliff upbringing.

Aria Dean, Sandra Mujinga and Tschabalala Self

Galerie Eva Presenhuber is hosting a group exhibition featuring the works of Aria Dean, Sandra Mujinga, and Tschabalala Self. The show explores the construction and erasure of the human body through diverse mediums, including Aria Dean’s 3D-animated film of an empty slaughterhouse and Sandra Mujinga’s spectral, fabric-based sculptures. By focusing on the architectures of violence and the labor of repair, the artists move away from traditional representation toward conceptual and structural critiques of subjecthood.

Mare Island Art Studios to unveil two new exhibits

Mare Island Art Studios is opening two new exhibitions. The specific artists and themes of the shows are not detailed in the provided text.

Henry Art Gallery fall opening celebration hums with color and conversation

The Henry Art Gallery hosted its fall opening celebration on October 3, transforming the museum into a lively social event with a DJ set by KEXP's Diana Ratsamee and an open bar. The evening featured four exhibitions: "Spirit House," exploring life and death through works by 34 Asian diasporic artists; Charlene Liu's single painting "Scallion"; Rodney McMillian's "Neighbors," a multimedia reflection on social and civic violence; and Kameelah Janan Rasheed's "we leak, we exceed," an immersive text-based installation. The event drew crowds who engaged with the art and each other, creating a vibrant atmosphere that contrasted with the museum's usual quietude.

Weekend of Art, Artists and Open Studios in Riebeek Valley

Solo Studios returns to the Riebeek Valley from October 24 to 26, 2025, featuring over 60 artists opening their studios in Riebeek Kasteel and Riebeek West. The weekend includes curated exhibitions such as LANDscape[s] at Die Kunshuis, showcasing works from Modern Art Projects South Africa (MAPSA), and a display of Ardmore Ceramics at EcoPlace, a home built from recycled materials. Other highlights include Red Hot, Pink Spot, a group show of 13 female artists from Kommetjie, and FEAST, a Porterville artist exhibition. Talks on art collecting and live music complement the open studios.

London's pre-contemporary art market gets boost from two new summer events

Two new summer events for pre-contemporary art are launching in London: Classic Art London (CAL), running from 23 June to 4 July, and Studiolo, a one-day showcase on 26 June. CAL fills the gap left by London Art Week, which ended in 2024, and features gallery exhibitions across Mayfair, St. James's, Cecil Court, and Belgravia, along with a talks programme at the Society of Antiquaries. Highlights include a rediscovered Titian, a solo show of Paul Nash landscapes, and a focus on Swedish Cubo-Futurist Gösta Adrian-Nilsson (GAN). Studiolo, held at Spencer House, presents art, antiquities, and sculpture.

New art gallery opens at downtown Victoria’s Fairmont Empress

Mountain Galleries, a Canadian fine art gallery group, has opened a new location inside the Fairmont Empress hotel in downtown Victoria. The space features works by established artists such as Paul Nicklen, Ann Murphy, Charlie Easton, and Robert E. Wood, alongside contemporary voices from the Off-Piste Fine Arts group including Jane Waterous, John Clinton, and David Yarrow. A grand opening celebration is scheduled for June 26th, 2025, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., with champagne and free admission by RSVP.

Johannes Phokela: Exploring Virtue, Contradiction, and Power at the Venice Biennale 2026.

South African artist Johannes Phokela is set to showcase a significant body of work at the 2026 Venice Biennale, building on his recent series 'The Seven Virtues' and 'Original Sin'. Curated under a vision initiated by the late Koyo Kouoh and supported by Eclectica Contemporary, Phokela’s paintings subvert the aesthetics of European Old Master traditions. His works, including 'Fides' and 'Temperantia', utilize Baroque visual languages to critique constructed morality, institutional power, and the performance of virtue.

The West as Witness: Langston Hughes Reimagined

The California African American Museum (CAAM) has launched 'A New Song: Langston Hughes in the West,' an exhibition that reframes the legendary Harlem Renaissance poet through his travels and political work in California and Nevada during the 1930s. By blending archival materials with contemporary artistic responses, the show moves beyond the traditional East Coast narrative to highlight Hughes as a diasporic thinker shaped by movement, labor, and the diverse landscapes of the American West.

Asia's Biennials Survey: The Asia Pivot

asias biennials survey asia pivot

Asia is experiencing a significant surge in biennial exhibitions, with at least eight major events currently running from Singapore to Riyadh and several more scheduled for later this year. These large-scale exhibitions are increasingly serving as strategic tools for soft power, urban regeneration, and economic promotion, often backed by government funding to elevate a city's global profile.

The Sports Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg. Here’s What Else to Expect From the 2028 Olympics.

Los Angeles is preparing a comprehensive Cultural Olympiad for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, led by LA28 senior vice president Dwayne Jones and executive director Nora Halpern. The program will feature free sports movie screenings, live music, food experiences, art installations, community events, and special exhibitions at local museums. Sixteen local artists have been commissioned to create posters honoring the games, with a dedicated gallery exhibition planned for July 2027. A new digital calendar and mapping tool will help residents and visitors navigate the cultural offerings, and institutions like LACMA, the LA Philharmonic, and the Museum of Latin American Art have already expressed support.

parties metropolitan museum vanguard dinner

The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted its 2026 Vanguard Council dinner, celebrating the institution's youngest patrons. The evening featured a Chinese-inflected menu developed by James Beard Award-nominated wine bar Lei, remarks from Met CEO Max Hollein and Vanguard Council co-chair Arielle Patrick, and a crowd of New York tastemakers including dealer Lucas Zwirner, patron Laila Blavatnik, and designer Isabel Wilkinson Schor. Guests departed with custom tote bags as parting gifts.

art fashion womens history museum devan diaz

Women's History Museum, the collaborative duo of Mattie Barringer and Amanda McGowan, presents their first institutional solo exhibition in the U.S., "Grisette à l'enfer," at Amant in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The show reimagines the 17th-century French grisette—a working-class woman who was both a laborer and a style icon—through a blend of past video, fashion, and sculpture, staged as a re-creation of a shopping experience. Works like "For a Moment I Have No Pain" (2025) and "Lit Reliquaire de Mary Magdalene" (2025) explore femininity, desire, and the price of beauty, with references to the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and the artists' own history meeting at that site.

parties culture metropolitan opera opening night

The Metropolitan Opera opened its season with a politically charged production of Mason Bates's *The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay*, based on Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. General Manager Peter Gelb declared the company's commitment to freedom of artistic expression, drawing a lengthy standing ovation. The opera, running through Oct. 11, follows two Jewish cousins creating an anti-fascist superhero comic during WWII. The opening night featured speeches by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who warned that 'the arts are under attack,' and a red carpet attended by celebrities including Christine Baranski, Neil Patrick Harris, Laverne Cox, and Julianna Margulies.

tribeca film festival mierle laderman ukeles

Filmmaker Toby Perl Freilich has created a documentary titled "Maintenance Artist" about the pioneering artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, known for her 1969 "Manifesto for Maintenance Art" and her decades-long role as the unsalaried artist-in-resident at the New York City Department of Sanitation. The film, which premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival, features archival footage, interviews with art historians and family, and documents Ukeles's process of curating her archives for the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, highlighting her iconic projects like "Touch Sanitation" (1979-80) and her ongoing work on Freshkills Park.

these three artisans have what their peers can only dream of unlimited access to the met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Vacheron Constantin have launched an Artisan Residency Program, selecting three inaugural residents: woodworker Aspen Golann, jewelry maker Joy Harvey, and ceramicist Ibrahim Said. Over 18 months, the trio will receive mentorship, studio space at the Met, full access to its archives and collections, and exposure to Vacheron Constantin's craftsmanship techniques in Geneva, culminating in original works that reflect their practices.

The Procession as a Form of World: Latin American Artists at the Diriyah Biennale

LA PROCESIÓN COMO FORMA DE MUNDO: ARTISTAS LATINOAMERICANOS EN LA BIENAL DE DIRIYAH

The third Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, titled 'In Interludes and Transitions,' is open until May 2nd in Saudi Arabia's historic Diriyah district. Curated by Nora Razian and Sabih Ahmed, the exhibition features 68 artists from over 37 countries and frames the world as a multitude of processions, using movement as its central theme and methodology. The exhibition design by Formafantasma encourages a fluid, nomadic journey through four thematic movements and site-specific 'arenas' within the repurposed industrial halls of the JAX creative district.

Explore the poetry of body and gesture through this evocative solo exhibition in Kolkata

Architect and Interiors India has published an article promoting a solo exhibition in Kolkata that explores the poetry of body and gesture. The exhibition features works that focus on the expressive potential of the human form and movement, presented as a visual meditation on physicality and emotion.

Dorchester gallery will host special and rare exhibition with top artist

Kerry Darlington, one of the UK's most collected and influential contemporary artists, will make a rare personal appearance at Halo Fine Art in Dorchester on Saturday, June 13. The gallery is hosting an exclusive, one-afternoon-only event where visitors can meet the artist, view a new collection of original works, and discuss the folklore behind her signature style of hand-poured resin and 3D details. The guest list is strictly limited and RSVP is required.

An Ancient Ballad at Emami Art Brings Generations of Artists Together in Kolkata

A new group exhibition titled 'An Ancient Ballad' opens at Emami Art in Kolkata on 22 May 2026, bringing together 12 artists across generations. The show examines recurring motifs of nature, the human body, and animal forms in modern and contemporary art through photography, painting, printmaking, textile, ceramics, and sculpture. Historical works by L. M. Sen and K. C. Pyne are displayed alongside contemporary artists including Arunima Choudhury, Ajit Kumar Das, Alakananda Sengupta, Raja Boro, and Rahul Sarkar, creating an intergenerational dialogue on memory, mythology, and lived experience.

Katie DeGroot: The Arboreal Life

Katie DeGroot's exhibition "The Arboreal Life" at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts in New York (April 2–May 9) presents tree paintings that anthropomorphize branches into human-like figures. Works such as "Chit Chat" (2026) and "Family Matters" (2025) depict trees leaning, gesturing, and tangling in ways that suggest intimate relationships, arguments, and familial bonds. DeGroot, who moved from New York City to a farm in upstate Fort Edward, began using fallen branches as models after lacking human subjects, developing compositions that emphasize color, texture, and the interplay of fungi and lichen. Her use of opaque and translucent watercolors balances natural observation with poetic interpretation.

What We Saw at Buffalo Prescott’s 'Vernal 2026'

Buffalo Prescott’s Detroit headquarters is hosting 'Vernal 2026,' a spring-inspired contemporary arts exhibition running through June 27, with a public opening on May 22. The exhibition features works by resident artists including Jessica Wildman Katz, Halima Afi Cassells, Cyrah Dardas, Sara Nickleson, and Tony Printz, alongside metro Detroit and international artists. Highlights include Katz's botanical rabbit sculpture 'Kindling,' Cristina Umaña's whimsical 'Mesa De Centro' (a stack of white tables with human-like limbs), and Amelia Burns's photographic diptych 'Evil Eye' and 'Evil Eye Transmuted onto Organza, 2026,' which explores contemporary American culture through collage.

This beloved pop culture art gallery in L.A. is closing after 20 years — is AI to blame?

Gallery 1988, a pioneering Los Angeles institution that branded itself as the world's first pop culture-focused art gallery, will cease operations at the end of April after 20 years. Founded in 2004, the gallery became a cult favorite for its tribute exhibitions dedicated to films, video games, and television, often drawing massive crowds for shows like "Crazy 4 Cult." Owner Katie Sutton cited a historically weak art market and the loss of a physical storefront as primary factors in the decision to close.

Spain’s galleries are protesting against high taxes—can Arco Madrid help voice their concerns?

The 45th edition of Arco Madrid, Spain’s premier contemporary art fair, is set to host 206 galleries from 36 countries at the Ifema convention centre. While the fair remains a vital commercial hub, it is currently overshadowed by a nationwide protest from Spanish galleries against the country's 21% VAT on art purchases. This tax rate is among the highest in Europe, significantly outpacing neighbors like Portugal and France, leading to concerns about international competitiveness and the classification of contemporary art as a luxury elite product.

Painting our neighborhoods: Storefront art at Tribeca gallery

Brooklyn-based artist Charis Ammon presents "Pedestrian," an exhibition of oil paintings depicting storefronts from her Bushwick neighborhood and other parts of New York City, at Sargent's Daughters Gallery in Tribeca. The works, inspired by photographs taken during her daily walks, feature scenes of Chinese takeout places, bodegas, dry cleaners, and laundromats, often incorporating reflections of buildings across the street. The exhibition runs through January 24 and is Ammon's second with the gallery, which is owned by Allegra LaViola.

Guadeloupean artist Kelly Sinnapah Mary wins French art prize at Art Basel Miami Beach

Guadeloupean artist Kelly Sinnapah Mary has won the CPGA-Villa Albertine Étant Donnés Prize at Art Basel Miami Beach, awarded annually to a French artist exhibiting at the fair. Her work *The Book of Violette: Marie-Anne* (2025) was displayed at James Cohan's booth and sold for $80,000 to a US-based foundation. The prize is presented by France’s gallery association, the Comité Professionnel des Galeries d'Art (CPGA), in partnership with Villa Albertine.